Battle.net has the announcement that Blizzard is working on a service to allow World of Warcraft players to invite Real ID friends of the same faction to party, even if they play on a different realm. They explain why part of this service will be offered at a premium: "As this is a fairly complex service to develop, we donít have a release date to share quite yet. Itís important to note that as with some of the other convenience- and connectivity-oriented features we offer, certain elements of the cross-realm Real ID party system will be premium-based, though only the player sending the invitations will need to have access to the premium service. We'll have more details to share with you as development progresses -- in the meantime, you may begin to see elements of the feature appear on the World of Warcraft PTR." There is some backlash from users unhappy that this will involve a fee, and the controversy is summarized on IncGamers.

Cave Johnson wrote on May 20, 2011, 11:19:According to years of research getting the last word in helps increase ego by a factor of 2. Last word. There, I said it. I feel my ego increasing already.

It's not about the last word, it's that you don't seem to be following the discussion here. The functionality that Blizzard is charging for here has been replicated for free both in competing products and their own. There is no reason other than simple greed for them to try and bilk their consumers this way. I'm not sure how much clearer to make it. If you want to say LAST WORD THIS ISNT AN MMO!! then ok fine, let's assume you're right and Guild Wars is an FPS game that doesn't have the same technical foundation of WoW. How does that change the fact that Blizzard already built this functionality into WoW and just slapping a different name onto it?

GW isn't exactly "massively multi-player" when only the town (a glorified "lobby") has a few dozen players spread across different, separate servers, but the rest of the world is instanced for a small party of players. Surely you can see the logic, right?

Seems like this should be included in the normal subscription costs to KEEP players. Many people have friends that play on other servers and would like to join them without rerolling. It's why a lot of newer MMOs do away with segregated servers in favor of instanced zones. This sort of thing also casts huge doubts on how they will milk Diablo 3 for more money.

From the time Blizzards revenue started to fall off with regards to WoW (nevermind that they still make container-ship-loads of money) I was thinking the same thing.

Diablo 3 will definitely have some sort of extra fees attached to the initial purchase fee. Probabably not a montly subscription, but some sort of premium account with some extra goodies that should have been free....

Seems like this should be included in the normal subscription costs to KEEP players. Many people have friends that play on other servers and would like to join them without rerolling. It's why a lot of newer MMOs do away with segregated servers in favor of instanced zones. This sort of thing also casts huge doubts on how they will milk Diablo 3 for more money.

The Half Elf wrote on May 18, 2011, 21:10:Ok but with the PVP maps your taking all these people and dumping them into a small map for a very limited amount of time. From what it sounds like is they will be allowing cross server playing and not just in BG's or Dungeons.

It is still the same underlying thing though. A player is just being moved from one server instance to another much like you do already for cross-realm activities. It is a feature already in the game for all intents and purposes. As soon as you leave the party you will be dumped back to your server. They do this sort of state migration already with several different ingame mechanics.

If you want to think it required some herculean effort on their part to adapt this into a usable thing then whatever makes you feel better but the reality is that it's a cash grab.

Teddy wrote on May 18, 2011, 20:17:The LFG system that functions across realms is already in place. I doubt that allowing you to queue with those same people beforehand is anywhere near as complicated as you're making it out to be.

Exactly. Instead of a random algorithm pairing you with 'Bob-MalGanis', you right click on your RealID friend, invite, and you're paired with 'Joe-Argent Dawn.'

Anyone who thinks 90% of this system isn't already in place is a fool. They built it, we've been using it, and now it dawns on them that they should be milking us to make full use of it. If you buy Blizzard's BS line, I got a premium bridge I'd like to sell you.

Ok but with the PVP maps your taking all these people and dumping them into a small map for a very limited amount of time. From what it sounds like is they will be allowing cross server playing and not just in BG's or Dungeons.

Using a steering wheel on a Burnout game is like using the Space Shuttle controls to fly a kite.

Teddy wrote on May 18, 2011, 20:17:The LFG system that functions across realms is already in place. I doubt that allowing you to queue with those same people beforehand is anywhere near as complicated as you're making it out to be.

Of course it is, how do people think they are doing cross realm battlegrounds and grouping after all? This isn't anywhere near as complex as it's made out to be, the subsystems for everything are already in the game. Like you said this is about them wanting to make more money and they already make a ton from this game. There is no excuse for this blatant greed and any sheep who continue their subs deserve the raping their wallet receives.

The Half Elf wrote on May 18, 2011, 16:42:nin usually I agree with you, but considering that they are even doing this and the complexity of it, no other MMO (that I am aware of) has done this before or even attempted to do this before, I could see they charging for this.

The LFG system that functions across realms is already in place. I doubt that allowing you to queue with those same people beforehand is anywhere near as complicated as you're making it out to be.

Fion wrote on May 18, 2011, 18:39:This kind of shit only puts Guild Wars 2 in a good light. As with the original it's a free game with microtransactions that don't affect gameplay. Things like extra character slots, inventory space, cosmetic gear and more. They made a lot of expansions and mission packs but none of it was necessary.

Combined with all the features that make it the most forward thinking MMOG in years, WoW is in a lot of trouble. They think the loss of 400k subscribers in the last several months is bad?

Don't affect gameplay? That's assuming then that they don't follow suit on their microtransactions from GW1. You can buy skill packs that unlocks every elite skill instantly for you for any class in that game. I'd sure as hell say that affects gameplay.

AnointedSword wrote on May 18, 2011, 19:00:What type of crap? If you do not want to pay for it, don't. What, do you all think that everything is free and it just happens to be there? It cost money to run these games. I am not saying they are not making money, I am saying they have every right to make money. People run businesses so they can make money. Work hard, play hard.

People pay ~$200 a year to play this game. That covers a hell of a lot more than just server maintenance. It's expected that it covers the cost of development of new features and new content.

The new content releases are getting smaller and further between and now they're asking for more money for new features. Pepole have every right to be pissed off.

THis isn't about them trying to make money. They already make billions. This is about them trying to make more money for things they said they'd NEVER try to make more money from.

Novelty pets and mounts is one thing. Game functionality is quite another.